With research being a key part of the Better Start programme, we are very excited to have been carrying out community insights research in the ABSS areas this summer though Activmob, research experts who specialise in capturing “real life” insights.

With our new focus on Diet and Nutrition, which was partly informed by the PACEC evidence review on childhood obesity, through Activmob we have been in the community gaining further evidence to inform future projects around this focus.

The research experts have been holding optional, anonymous and informal conversations with Southend families in the ABSS wards to hear more about their experiences around healthy eating, including nutrition in pregnancy and breastfeeding, the support they received and any barriers to healthy eating.

We are looking to build a more detailed picture of Southend’s experiences of nutrition in pregnancy, infant feeding and early years nutrition and the information gathered will help our aim of improving the health and outcomes of local babies and children up to 4 years.

This qualitative research, obtained in an informal yet professional way, will inform the projects that we do and our future Service Design, and long-term will help parents make decisions that are good for them, their babies and children in the future.

Marion Gibbon, Interim Deputy Director of Public Health, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council who is leading the research for ABSS, said: “This work is really important to ABSS as the programme ethos involves ensuring that parents are involved in the design of the projects that follow-on from the insights. Involving the local community is an essential aspect to ensuring that we are basing our work on local knowledge that is supported by academic evidence.”

The results of the research will be available on the ABSS website ready to inform our work and along with other national and international research will assist us with the identification of the key gaps and opportunities to inform our strategy.

If you have any questions or would like to let us know your experiences of nutrition in pregnancy, infant feeding and early years nutrition, get in touch with us atinfo@pre-school.org.uk.